ECONOMIC RECOVERY
Page 53
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Customers who don’t pay put hauliers under pressure
CREDIT MANAGEMENT is proving to be crucial in haulage, especially considering that a Barclays local business report has put outstanding debt owed to the transport and logistics industry at £727m.
Barclays says this is the amount logistics irms are owed on any given day due to customers’ failure to pay on time.
On a typical day, transport businesses are £2,690 out of pocket on invoices that have gone past 30 days. A further £1,000 per business goes unpaid, resulting in a bad debt total of £271m.
Late payments, according to Barclays, are on the rise, and 35% of transport irms told the survey that poor payment threatens their day-to-day survival.
The report also found that the problem is unlikely to go away – 54% of transport and logistics irms think it will get worse in the next 12 months.
● Forty per cent of transport and logistics businesses have borrowed money (loan or overdraft) to improve cash low as a result of being paid late.
● Firms spend on average 1.3 hours a day chasing late payments.